etcelsior | throws thumbtack confetti everywhere

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place!

Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at anyone's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. Your memory is hazy and you might feel increasingly frustrated or anxious, or maybe you're excited as soldiers march past, barely glimpsing you. One second you're somewhere underground, the next you're enveloped in blue light, and suddenly you find yourself directly under Flordia sun's bright and burning glare. A female soldier steps toward you with a wide smile on her face and directs you to a car, ready to debrief you. You realize you are not the only one, surrounded by equally confused or eager faces... and you're all sporting a digital tattoo on your wrist.

02. Welcome to Cape Canaveral, where the smell of the ocean is in the air and locals are more than pleased to see new imPorts roaming their streets. They wave, they cheer, they ask for pictures as politely as they can. The more inhuman you look, or if you're wearing a costume, the more likely locals are to approach. Hey, enjoy the moment! The popular malt shop is offering you a free drink if you need it.

03. The technology in this world is certainly something. The cars are clearly modeled after popular 50s cars, but they hover several feet above the ground as they drive down the street. There are digital jukeboxes in restaurants, motorcycles also hover through traffic, advertisements can be seen on a digital projector on the taller buildings. Even kids on skateboards appear to drift a safe ten feet off the ground while playing!

04. Wherever you are, you can hear the loud revving of an engine, distance at first before you finally see it: a hovercar bursting around the corner, going beyond the maximum speed limit and just barely making its sharp turn. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, not with two police cars trailing it... and uh oh. Those skateboarding kids don't have much time to get out of the way as the car comes speeding down the road. You've been brought here for a reason Hero — so you better act fast.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"..?!"

Shinjiro doesn't quite startle per se, but his back and shoulders do stiffen slightly, brows creasing and lips tugging downward as he'd been caught off guard. He turns his head just enough to glance at the other man through messy bangs, expression returning to its typical neutrality as the comment registered.

"Not really." A shrug, and he pulls his hand back from the half-decayed fruit (A sort of unconscious self-consciousness,) and looks the man over. Some sort of-- small computer thing, but otherwise not too much terribly impressive about the guy. He has no idea what's so fascinating to be typed so furiously, but the fact that he'd crept up and focused on that makes Shinjiro want to keep distanced.

"I mean, unless I got a real hate for fruit." Dry, even-toned, and his shoulders roll in a shrug.

"So, you need something?"

He's still typing away as he speaks, maybe even grinning a little this time. Maybe he secretly likes sneaking up on people. Being sneaky is definitely one of his strong suits. "We both know that's not the full extent of your ability. It's a lot more powerful than you're giving yourself credit for. You could do that on any plant..." A glance to Shinjiro's face, looking for a give away. "...or animal, even."

Well, is he right?

As practiced as Shinjiro is with keeping his emotions off his sleeve, so to speak, it's impossible to hide the faint narrowing of eyes and exhale, already finding himself not liking this guy. He's not sure if it's that grin, the incessant typing, or the prying questions-- but whatever the case his eyes dip down, forearms moving down to rest on the table in front of him.

"...Dunno yet." Which was true enough. And the people that had been around when he'd first awoken after his arrival... they'd seemed knowledgeable about it enough. But the fact that there's more to be said (That he doesn't wish to say,) is likely apparent to someone looking closely, the way his eyebrows crease together, eyes focus on the woodgrain before him in thought.

"Mostly just testing it out." Hopefully that's satisfactory enough, as he turns to face the other man again, this time straight on. "So again- You need something, or're you just being a nosy asshole?"

The narrowing of eyes is enough of a tell for Inumuta to latch onto, and assume he's right. The other might say he doesn't know, but he's also not met with point blank refusal, and so this might be the closest he'll get to a confirmation. He's worked with worse. He can roll with this. It hardly matters to him if this man, his newfound interest, wants to talk about it or not.

"Nosy, mostly. My name is Inumuta. What's yours?" Mostly because he wants to assign this data he's gathered so far a subject line.

At least the guy's honest about it. Another irritated glare lasts for a second or so-- but at the same time, there's really no point in hiding who he is, or that he's been brought here with some stupid power.

"Aragaki." Might as well stick to a surname basis.

A glance down to the datapad, and: "You take notes on everyone?"

"And everything," Inumuta adds, trying to make it sound more like a correction than bragging. It doesn't work. He's totally bragging.

"If the government of America is going to bother bringing me here when I don't want to be here, and I have somewhere else that needs my skills, then the least I'm going to do is study anything I think might be useful, especially the things that they produce themselves, like your abilities. I'm assuming you didn't have those before, or you wouldn't be testing them out like this, correct?"

Man, it totally sounds like bragging. But really, despite all his sneaking and snooping, its easy for Shinjiro to form some quick opinions on the guy: Proud, nosey, likely thinks all his infomation is way more useful than it is.

So, like Jin, pretty much.

Another shrug, and he gestures to the opposite side of the worn table, as though inviting Inumuta to sit across from him. "If I had 'em back home, then I woulda had a real answer for you earlier." It's as dry as ever, but less distancing than before. "I'm going off the notes they handed me on it when I showed up." Which was weird in and of itself- That the government had known all about his newfound powers even before he'd awaken here.

"So what's the weirdest power you've got on your list?"

"Like Jin" is the most appropriate simile that will ever be used to describe Inumuta. Shinjiro can now brag he knows Inumuta better than anyone else in Heropa simply by the fact he knows of Jin.

He's never been invited to sit with the person he's being nosy at though so. This is kind of new. But he takes the seat anyway, although never letting go of his tablet. "May I see those notes?" Note how he's actually... asking this time, rather than just being rude and demanding to be told. Maybe he's being a little less distant, too. "I might be able to interpret it better, after everything I've seen so far."

"As for the weirdest power... I would think it is my teammates ability. He's typically taller than me, but for the first time since I've known him, I saw him smaller than I am. It was startling." Seriously, a mouse-sized Gamagori. It was weird.

He pauses for a moment at the request-- though really, there doesn't seem to be any harm it in. This guy is surprisingly upfront about his motivations (if kind of a smug jackass) so, he nods, rifling through a pocket for some of the paperwork he'd folded up and shoved in there.

He takes a moment to yank the page off its staple (away from some of the more personal information) and hands it over easily. Again- powers aren't rare here, and his are nothing that the other man hadn't already seen, or couldn't be easily identified.

"...It says I should be able to like-- un-rot the thing, but like hell I know how to do that." Another prod at the overtly-sweet-scented fruit withered and mushed on the table-- and he's sure able to make it deteriorate more with those light prods, but it sure doesn't seem to be getting any better.

But the comment about the guy's teammate (And the word there, implying Inumuta had allies, or perhaps friends--) causes a short, rough, and not entirely earnest laugh. "What, he can shrink?"

He quietly hoped Shinjiro wouldn't remember to separate the pages, but whatever. He was just being nosy.

"Un-rot things..." Inumuta says quietly, more to himself than anything. To rot and unrot. Maybe, then, to heal, actually? He's met those who could heal before. The smell of the fruit is kind of making him sick though. What an awful power.

Shinjiro's laugh shakes him from his thoughts though, and he looks up again from the file. "Yes. Ah... don't let him know I told you. He's sensitive about it." Bet you thought Inumuta was just an info nerd?! He's also kind of a gossip. Whoops. Maybe now is a good time to change subjects... "Perhaps your ability is mood based." As it was with Gamagori. "You're not happy here or right now, so you can only use the 'rot' function. But maybe if you were in a better mood, you could use the 'heal' function."

"Well, shit." If it's tied into his emotions, he's fucked is it ever comes to needing to mend anything. Granted, he's never had healing or supportive skills before this, so it's not particularly a disadvantage. "That'll take a bit."

Not only because he's a miserable, self-depreciating person, but also because this situation is shitty.

He finally bats the shriveled and useless fruit away, instead folding his forearms on the top of the table again. "What about you? What power'd you get here?"

"I have a few," Inumuta begins, and instead points toward the bag of apples. "May I have one you haven't experimented on?" If he's going to start talking about himself, he wants something for it at least.

throws thumbtack confetti everywhere

:V !!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

if i get accepted i totes want to consider this canon :T!!

yesss

no subject

no subject